I have a theoretical question about Time Machine. I've used TM for several years (since Leopard), and have never once had a problem.

Here's my question: When I restart my machine, why doesn't the backup become half-done or a file half-written? Neither my 27-inch iMac nor the G5 it replaced ever said 'hey - I kind of need to finish this first'.

1 Answer
1

Imagine there's a checklist, file 1, file 2, etc.
You pull the plug in the middle of file 2 being saved.
On restart of Time Machine, it sees file 1 (check) but file 2 wasn't completed, so it sees where it left off and finishes.

What's similarly remarkable is I can pull the plug on a downloading video, a 2GB single file, and on restart, it (the torrent client) knows where to pick up where it left off.